Klopp mind-games are nothing but bad excuses, says Guardiola

PEP GUARDIOLA has insisted Liverpool shouldn’t use excuses in their struggle to retain the Premier League title as tensions rise ahead of today’s clash at Anfield.

The Manchester City boss has been angered by Jurgen Klopp’s claim that City benefited from a break when their fixture against Everton was postponed due to Covid. And he can’t understand why Liverpool’s current injury crisis has been treated more sympathetically than when City were struck down earlier in the season.

Liverpool had to sign two centre-halves on deadline day because Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip are out for the season. But Pep Guardiol ad oesn’ t remember much slack being given to City when they went to Chelsea at the start of the year with only 14 fit senior players.

‘I say to my players when you complain and look for excuses you cannot move forward,’ said Guardiola. ‘Excuses are the worst thing in the world and in sport.

‘From my lessons as a professional in football, when you find an excuse, you cannot move forward. That’s for sure. Sometimes I did it, I have to admit it, but that was a mistake, for sure.

‘When we didn’t have Kevin De Bruyne or having Aymeric Laporte, or one year now without Sergio Aguero, what can you do? You see how many players there are, just 14 as you know at Stamford Bridge, and you say, “OK, we have the academy — go in there and play, try to win the game and do as well as possible”.

‘That is what you have to do and we did it. We never used it (an excuse), “we don’t have these players”.

‘ Unfortunately, Kevin, Sergio, Nathan (Ake) are not there for Liverpool. I wish they come back as soon as possible. But what they have to do is recover and we have to try to win games with the players we have.’

Klopp’s claim that City had a two-week rest at the end of December has annoyed Guardiola. The reality is City had eight days between matches when their training ground was closed due to Covid and their match at Goodison Park postponed.

The uncharacteristic friction between them is a hark back to the days of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez when mind-games used to dominate the build-up to big matches.

Guardiola darkly suggested Klopp’s comment about City’s ‘rest’ was a wind-up to disturb them before today’s game.

‘What Jurgen said (about) two weeks off, the purpose I don’t know. You will have to ask him or I will ask him,’ said the City boss. ‘Sometimes it is difficult for managers to finish games and five minutes later, give opinions about decisions into the microphone.

‘ But when you are relaxed in a press conference before a game, to say something to provoke, I never did it or did it maybe once or twice for an exceptional reason, but not to provoke. I am only concerned about the game.’